Tech Tip Tuesday: October 8, 2013

CALENDAR SYNC – GOOGLE CALENDARS WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER

If you are anything like me you have a work calendar, a personal calendar, a family calendar, a significant others calendar and probably several other calendars you must keep an eye on for work. This was starting to get overwhelming especially because all of my calendars were spread across multiple platforms. It also doesn’t help that I have use my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Pro interchangeably, and needed everything to sync with out having to think about it.

So… Google Calendars Set, I went on a journey of discovery to figure out how I could get my Google Calendars (all of them) to sync with my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Pro, all with out the help of anything like MobileMe. (I am not a huge MobileMe fan but thats a blog post for a different day)

Step One: Relieving all of your devices of their native calendars. In order to have everything play nicely together you must pick one platform…Google Calendars it is. I am a huge fan of Google’s calendar capabilities anyway so this wasn’t too big of a jump for me. Once you make sure all of your data is migrated onto a Google Calendar (herein referred to as gCal) you are ready to start. (Note: it is much easier to create several calendars for types of events rather than trying to squeeze everything onto one)

Step Two: Go into the Mail, Contacts, and Calendars settings on your mobile devices. Make sure to turn off other calendars if you plan to use a gCal for everything. Once that is complete, delete your gmail account from your phone and iPad. (I know this sounds scary, but dont worry, everything is backed up online)

Step Three: Go to m.google.com/sync on your computer and follow the directions on setting up Gmail using Google Sync. This may take some time, however the directions are super easy to follow. Essentially, you are creating an exchange account for Gmail. (Hint: When setting up the Google Sync your phone and iPad will more than likely name this account Exchange. If you are super picky how things appear on your phone like I am, make sure to change this to Gmail.)

Step Four: Go to m.google.com/sync on your mobile device. You will be prompted to login using your Google sign in. From here select the device you are working on. You will be presented with a list of all of the calendars you own and have access to in your gCal account. Simply select the ones you would like to work with on your device, and just like magic they will appear.

Step Five: Open iCal. Go to preference and delete your previous gmail account and set up a new gCal using CalDav. Once you have the account set up, click the third tab in the preferences named “Delegation”. If you have this account properly set up you will see all of the available calendars. Select all of the gCal’s you would like to manage and have synced with your other mobile devices.

COMPLETE!

Make sure to run a few tests and check when adding new calendar entries that they update across all of your devices. The easiest way to do this is to create a new event in iCal, check and amend it on your iPhone, and finally delete it on your iPad. Then log in to your gCal online and make sure its gone. Make sure to check the update/sync times on your devices. I originally thought I had messed up, however I had the auto-refresh times set to long and as such didn’t get the updates immediately. This is easily changed in the preferences.

Finally: Enjoy knowing when and where you need to be. No matter what device you happen to be in front of, you can schedule your time away and know you will have total access when ever and where ever.